Robert And Elizabeth Browning Quotes & Sayings

There's a line in The Barretts of Wimpole Street - you know, the play - where Elizabeth Barrett is trying to work out the meaning of one of Robert Browning's poems, and she shows it to him, and he reads it and he tells her when he wrote that poem, only God and Robert Browning knew what it meant, and now only God knows. And that's how I feel about studying English. Who knows what the writer was thinking, and why should it matter? I'd rather just read for enjoyment. — Susanna Kearsley

Lady Gough's Book of Etiquette, published in 1863, established some of the social commandments of the times: one must avoid, for example, the intolerable proximity of male and female authors on library shelves. Books could only stand together if the authors were married, such as in the case of Robert and Elizabeth Browning. — Eduardo Galeano

from The Barretts of Wimpole Street
Elizabeth: Sometimes there are passages . . . which rather puzzle me.
Browning: Oh, Sordello! I've done my best to forget it. However . . ( His smile fades. He mutters.) Extraordinary. . .But - but a passage torn from context . . .
Elizabeth: Well?
Browning: Well, Miss Barrett - when that passage was written only God and Robert Browning understood it. Now only God understands it. — Rudolf Besier